OnePlus might launch its next flagship killer early next year

I wouldn’t blame you if you forgot about this year’s “flagship killer.” The OnePlus 5 was riddled by controversies at launch, and it hardly made the news after the dust had settled.

On paper, it’s still a great phone, but it doesn’t seem to compete with the more exciting Galaxy Note 8, LG V30, iPhone 8, iPhone X, and Pixel 2. These are all phones that were scheduled to launch after the OnePlus 5 hit stores, and some of them are already available to buyers.

That’s why it’s not surprising to hear that OnePlus may have ditched plans to launch a OnePlus 5T handset this year. Instead, it’s supposedly looking to release the OnePlus 6 in early 2018.

Last year’s OnePlus 3T brought a better processor, the same Snapdragon 821 that powered the Pixel phones. Meanwhile, many of the other 2016 Android flagships packed Snapdragon 820 processors.

However, Qualcomm isn’t going to release a Qualcomm Snapdragon 836 this year, which means OnePlus would have no real reason to already “upgrade” the OnePlus 5. The Pixel 2 handsets were also supposed to receive the Snapdragon 836, reports said earlier this year. But Google’s new phones will also ship with Snapdragon 835 chips inside.

Citing a questionable report from Android Marvel, GSM Arena says the OnePlus 6 will arrive in early 2018.

However, there are no other details about the OnePlus 6 at this time. The only thing that we can say for certain is that there’s really no point for a OnePlus 5T to come up right now, especially considering that the iPhone X and Pixel 2 are about to launch.

OnePlus went for an iPhone-clone design for the OnePlus 5 this year, so it’ll be interesting to see what the Chinese smartphone maker does next year. Will the OnePlus 6 feature an all-screen design? Will it have an iPhone X-like notch?